My last week at the All-African Games sped by much faster than the first one. Once Sunday hit, I barely had time to look for WiFi or watch any other event that wasn’t happening at the track.

The 100 preliminaries and semi-finals were scheduled to be on the first day – the first round early in the morning and the second later in the evening. This was the first day that the temperature outside actually reached a point where I could positively say it was hot. Even the ever-present fog lifted that day, and left the sun beating down on us during warm-ups…

It’s only been three days since I’ve returned from the Congo, but it still feels like a lifetime ago. There are things I miss when I get back from bigger meets like this one – the teammates I rarely get to see, meeting so many new people, the feeling of pride that comes with competing for Ghana on an international level – just to name a few. Overall, my time Brazzaville, Congo was OK at best. A lot of things didn’t go as expected, but I’ve learned over time to just roll with the punches and make the best of every opportunity I’m given…

After tons of searching and scouring of the world-wide web, I’ve finally started to find a lot more blogs that I enjoy reading. One of the reasons I was able to find more blogs to read was because of posts I encountered called Link Love. Basically, people share links to things online that they’ve enjoyed recently so that more people can check them out, and see what they might be missing. I thought it was an awesome idea, and decided to give it a try. So, without further ado, here’s what I’ve been enjoying online recently:

Through Flings, I also stumbled upon the website of Canadian Hurdler, Karelle Edwards. She doesn’t update very often, but I’m enjoying what she’s posted so far 🙂

I’m a sucker for great photography, add in fitness and fashion and I’m hooked. Michelle Carigma manages to do all that and more!

Two of my former teammates have a blog that discuss and informs on a variety of topics ranging from training and recovery to nutrition and lifestyle. It’s hard to leave Sustainable Athletics without learning something new.

As I’ve gotten more involved with my blog, I’ve been looking for resources and advice on what I can do to improve it. The Nectar Collective is a great resource for people who want to get more serious about blogging.

Are there any sites you’ve been enjoying lately? (other than this one, of course 😉 )

“That’s what our training is for, we practice not panicking, we practice breathing, we practice looking directly at the thing that scares us until we stop flinching, we practice overriding our Can’t.”
-Kristin Armstrong

A quote to get my week going. Something to remember when attacking those hard workouts – it’s all in preparation for the time when all you can rely on is your training and instincts.

The other day, as I was rolling out after lifting, I couldn’t help but feel great about myself. I was sore and exhausted, but that feeling of being back at work on the track and in the gym made all that fade into the background.

When someone asks me why I love to run, I usually reply with “I do and I don’t”. Which is true, in a sense. I don’t particularly love running in and of itself. But, I do love the feeling of crossing the finish line and seeing a new PR, of crushing a hard workout and knowing that most people would have given up, of feeling fit and healthy and motivated to keep pushing. I love everything that running gives me, but just so you know, I am slowly learning to like running. I’m sure the love will come later.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
-Winston Churchill

This week has been a trial in keeping on track (excuse the pun, haha).

I’ve always been one to get disappointed in myself easily. If things don’t go perfectly the first time, it’s easy for me to see myself as having immediately failed, and it’s hard to rev myself back up again. I’ve known this for a long time, so I knew that trying to change my attitude and be more motivated and optimistic would be one of my hardest challenges on this journey to achieving my goals.